Morning Roundup: December 22, 2023

At the SPAC of Dawn

Many companies may be packing it in for the year today as it is the last trading day before Christmas, but SPACs still have plenty left on their docket.

Today, SPAC watchers will get to see if Slam Corp.‘s (NASDAQ:SLAM) A-Rod-led marketing offensive for its letter of intent with satellite telecom Lynk provided a sufficient tease for shareholders to stick around past today’s extension vote.

There has also been plenty activity with SPACs looking to put a bow on their business combinations before the holiday snooze kicks in as BYTE, Prospector, Chavant, and Dune all closed their transactions in the past 24 hours.

On the macro side, the US market is getting updated readings on building permits and personal consumption expenditures (PCE) core prices. This latter inflation measure is expected to fall and plenty in SPACland are hoping that it could signal the final straw in turning back the Fed’s high-rates policy.

Deals and Funding

• Berenson I (NYSE:BACA) has agreed to combine with Custom Health in a deal that would give the digital pharmacy company a $185 million pre-money equity value.
• Chenghe I (NASDAQ:LATG) advanced its initial agreements with Taipei-listed golf club manufacturer Femco Steel Technology (TWO:6731) to a definitive merger agreement.
• Tristar I (NYSE:TRIS) has amended the combination it signed with Helport AI last month, reducing the target’s share compensation to $335 million from $350 million and eliminating an earnout that would have conditioned 10% of such compensation on hitting revenue targets in 2024 and 2025.

News and Rumors

• BloombergTax: US auditors have struggled to verify revenues of newly listed de-SPACs in a study of 20 such companies conducted by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.

Scheduling Notes